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a fall morning in 1904 as children finished up their
morning chores they heard the clanging of a bell.
The ringing sound came from the direction of the
Schunemann's dairy farm. Here,
in the corner of a cow pasture, sat a brand new
one-room school. Children gathered lunch pails,
baseballs, marbles and schoolbooks before setting
off for the first day of classes. For the next fifty
years, hundreds of children from the thriving German-American
farm community passed through the schoolhouse doors.
Hoosier Grove School closed
in 1954. For many years the building sat vacant
and boarded up on the corner of Barrington and Old
Church Roads, in Streamwood.In the early 1970's
a group of citizens from Streamwood, Illinois, banded
together and formed the Bicentennial Commission. Looking
for a project to mark the United States' 200th anniversary,
the group set out to acquire and transform the abandoned
schoolhouse into the community's museum. In 1976
Gertrude McNaught-Olden donated the building to
the Streamwood Park District with the proviso that
the building be moved to another location and used
for educational purposes. The schoolhouse was then
moved to Parkside Circle where volunteers began
to work on what became a four-year project.
In 1980 the doors of the
schoolhouse re-opened and since that time the Streamwood
Park District has owned and operated Hoosier Grove
Museum. With assistance from the Streamwood Historical
Society, the Park District strives to accomplish
the museum's mission of gathering, preserving and
interpreting local history and culture. Today, the
building continues a nearly 100-year-old tradition
of offering educational opportunities and serving
as a community gathering place.
In
1991 the schoolhouse was moved to its present location
in Hoosier Grove Park, 700 West Irving Park Road,
Streamwood, Illinois. The museum sits on the north
side of the street, west of Bartlett Road and east
of Route 59 (Sutton Road).
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